linear

What this skill does

# Linear

## Overview

Automate and extend Linear — the streamlined issue tracker for modern software teams. This skill covers workspace setup, team workflow configuration, the GraphQL API for full CRUD on issues/projects/cycles, webhooks for real-time events, GitHub/GitLab sync, and automation patterns for triage, labeling, and sprint management.

## Instructions

### Step 1: Authentication & SDK Setup

**Personal API key** (Settings → API → Personal API keys):
```bash
export LINEAR_API_KEY="lin_api_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
```

**SDK setup** (recommended):
```bash
npm install @linear/sdk
```

```typescript
import { LinearClient } from "@linear/sdk";
const linear = new LinearClient({ apiKey: process.env.LINEAR_API_KEY });
const me = await linear.viewer;
console.log(`Authenticated as: ${me.name} (${me.email})`);
```

**Raw GraphQL** (no SDK needed):
```bash
curl -X POST https://api.linear.app/graphql \
  -H "Authorization: $LINEAR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "{ viewer { id name email } }"}'
```

For OAuth2 apps (multi-user), register at linear.app/settings/api/applications and use Authorization Code flow with PKCE.

### Step 2: Teams, Labels & Templates

Linear hierarchy: **Workspace → Teams → Projects → Issues**.

```typescript
// List teams
const teams = await linear.teams();
teams.nodes.forEach((t) => console.log(`${t.key}: ${t.name} (${t.id})`));

// Create label
await linear.issueLabelCreate({ teamId: "TEAM_ID", name: "bug", color: "#ef4444" });
```

**Custom workflow states** (GraphQL):
```graphql
mutation { workflowStateCreate(input: {
  teamId: "TEAM_ID", name: "In Review", type: "started", color: "#f59e0b", position: 3
}) { workflowState { id name } } }
```

State types: `backlog`, `unstarted`, `started`, `completed`, `cancelled`.

### Step 3: Issues — CRUD & Bulk Operations

```typescript
// Create an issue
const issue = await linear.issueCreate({
  teamId: "TEAM_ID", title: "Implement user authentication",
  description: "Add OAuth2 login flow with Google and GitHub providers.",
  priority: 2, assigneeId: "USER_ID", labelIds: ["LABEL_ID"],
  estimate: 3, dueDate: "2026-03-15",
});

// Query issues with filters
const issues = await linear.issues({
  filter: {
    team: { key: { eq: "ENG" } },
    state: { type: { in: ["started", "unstarted"] } },
    priority: { lte: 2 },
  }, first: 50,
});

// Bulk cancel stale backlog issues
const stale = await linear.issues({
  filter: { state: { type: { eq: "backlog" } }, label: { name: { eq: "stale" } } },
});
for (const issue of stale.nodes) {
  await issue.update({ stateId: "CANCELLED_STATE_ID" });
}

// Sub-issues and relations
await linear.issueCreate({ teamId: "TEAM_ID", title: "Write auth tests", parentId: "PARENT_ID" });
await linear.issueRelationCreate({ issueId: "A", relatedIssueId: "B", type: "blocks" });
```

### Step 4: Projects & Cycles

```typescript
// Create a project
const project = await linear.projectCreate({
  teamIds: ["TEAM_ID"], name: "Q1 Auth Overhaul",
  description: "Replace legacy auth with OAuth2 + MFA",
  targetDate: "2026-03-31", startDate: "2026-01-15", state: "started",
});

// Link issue to project and check progress
await issue.update({ projectId: "PROJECT_ID" });
const proj = await linear.project("PROJECT_ID");
console.log(`Progress: ${proj.progress}% — ${proj.completedScopeCount}/${proj.scopeCount}`);

// Create a cycle (sprint)
await linear.cycleCreate({
  teamId: "TEAM_ID", name: "Sprint 14",
  startsAt: "2026-02-17T00:00:00Z", endsAt: "2026-03-02T00:00:00Z",
});

// Roll unfinished issues to next cycle
const active = (await linear.cycles({
  filter: { team: { key: { eq: "ENG" } }, isActive: { eq: true } },
})).nodes[0];
const next = (await linear.cycles({
  filter: { team: { key: { eq: "ENG" } }, startsAt: { gt: active.endsAt } }, first: 1,
})).nodes[0];
const unfinished = await linear.issues({
  filter: { cycle: { id: { eq: active.id } }, state: { type: { in: ["unstarted", "started"] } } },
});
for (const issue of unfinished.nodes) await issue.update({ cycleId: next.id });
```

### Step 5: Webhooks & Automation

**Create a webhook** (Settings → API → Webhooks, or via GraphQL):
```graphql
mutation { webhookCreate(input: {
  url: "https://your-server.com/linear/webhook", teamId: "TEAM_ID",
  resourceTypes: ["Issue", "Comment", "Project"], enabled: true
}) { webhook { id } } }
```

**Verify and handle webhooks:**
```typescript
import crypto from "crypto";

function verifyLinearWebhook(body: string, signature: string, secret: string): boolean {
  const hmac = crypto.createHmac("sha256", secret);
  hmac.update(body);
  return hmac.digest("hex") === signature;
}

app.post("/linear/webhook", (req, res) => {
  const { action, type, data, updatedFrom } = req.body;
  if (type === "Issue" && action === "update" && updatedFrom?.stateId) {
    console.log(`${data.identifier} moved to ${data.state.name}`);
  }
  if (type === "Issue" && action === "create") {
    // Auto-assign by label
    const labels = data.labels?.map((l: any) => l.name) || [];
    const map: Record<string, string> = { frontend: "LEAD_A", backend: "LEAD_B" };
    for (const [label, id] of Object.entries(map)) {
      if (labels.includes(label)) { linear.issueUpdate(data.id, { assigneeId: id }); break; }
    }
  }
  // Auto-triage urgent issues into active cycle
  if (type === "Issue" && data.priority <= 1) {
    linear.cycles({ filter: { team: { id: { eq: data.teamId } }, isActive: { eq: true } } })
      .then(c => { if (c.nodes[0]) linear.issueUpdate(data.id, { cycleId: c.nodes[0].id }); });
  }
  res.sendStatus(200);
});
```

### Step 6: GitHub Integration & Reporting

**GitHub sync** — enable in Settings → Integrations → GitHub. Use branch naming:
```
git checkout -b username/eng-123-fix-login-bug
```
Merged PRs auto-move linked issues to "Done".

**Query team velocity:**
```graphql
query { cycles(filter: { team: { key: { eq: "ENG" } }, isCompleted: { eq: true } }, last: 6) {
  nodes { name completedScopeCount scopeCount startsAt endsAt }
} }
```

**Export issues to CSV:**
```typescript
const writer = createWriteStream("issues.csv");
writer.write("Identifier,Title,State,Priority,Assignee,Created\n");
let cursor: string | undefined;
let hasMore = true;
while (hasMore) {
  const page = await linear.issues({ first: 100, after: cursor });
  for (const issue of page.nodes) {
    const assignee = issue.assignee ? (await issue.assignee).name : "Unassigned";
    const state = (await issue.state)?.name || "Unknown";
    writer.write(`${issue.identifier},"${issue.title}",${state},${issue.priority},${assignee},${issue.createdAt}\n`);
  }
  hasMore = page.pageInfo.hasNextPage;
  cursor = page.pageInfo.endCursor;
}
writer.end();
```

## Examples

### Example 1: Sprint rollover and velocity dashboard

**User prompt:** "Our current sprint ends today. Roll any unfinished issues into Sprint 15 and show me a velocity report for the last 4 completed sprints on the ENG team."

The agent will query the active cycle for the ENG team and find all issues with unstarted or started states. It will then look up the next cycle by start date, update each unfinished issue to the new cycle ID, and report how many issues were moved. For the velocity report, it will query the last 4 completed cycles via GraphQL, extract `completedScopeCount` and `scopeCount` for each, and display a table with sprint name, total scope, completed count, and completion percentage.

### Example 2: Auto-triage pipeline with Slack notifications

**User prompt:** "Set up a webhook so that when any issue is created with the 'bug' label on the Platform team, it gets assigned to the on-call engineer and a Slack message is posted to #platform-bugs with the issue title and link."

The agent will create a Linear webhook subscribed to Issue resource types for the Platform team. It will write an Express handler that verifies the webhook signature, checks for `action: "create"` events where the labels include "bug", updates the